Without You
by MeddyGrey
Summary: On typical day, a typical argument causes a typical fight, resulting in an atypical outcome. (Just split into bite-size chapters)
1. Chapter 1

_Without You_

_By Medina_

_*Characters property of Rumiko Takahashi. Duuuh._

__

_Chapter 1_

"Eh? What's this?" he asked, looking at the letter-sized paper that Akane had so suddenly thrust into his view upon the fence-railing where he usually walked on their way home from school. He snatched it from her grasp when he noticed that she was keeping her face, stern, turned away so that they would not meet gazes. "'Furinkan High School Senior Ball,'" he read aloud, still keeping his uncanny sense of balance while reading the the paper intently and studying the picture of a man and woman dressed in fine attire surrounded by stars on a moonlit walk that was a center eye-catcher on the flier as well as the logo for the theme: " 'Together, Forever... Come and experience the night that you will remember for the rest of your life'." He paused and glanced at Akane again, who was still somehow keeping her view engaged elsewhere. "Senior Ball's comin' up already? I'd better keep my guard; word of this is bound to end up in Shampoo's or Kodachi's hands," he put his arms up in back of his head and walked for a while, looking up, waiting for Akane to comment. The sun shone down on the Nerima rooftops, in their red tiling and brown shingles; laundry rustled in the breeze, a bird fluttered, singing, to a lofty nest. Akane still walked, silent.

  
"Well?" Ranma finally broke the silence, peering down at her, bored of the interlude.

  
" 'Well' what?" Akane finally said, still not looking at the handsome young martial artist. He hopped down from the fence and walked beside her.

  
"Aren't you going to ask me if I want to go? You know, a macho chick like you _would_ do the asking, not the guy," he said, smiling impishly to add to his dig.

  
"Why would I ask YOU?" she said, finally turning to him, staring daggers through his head, her face red for more reason than anger, "You didn't look at the whole thing," she pointed to the bottom, which said, 'Martial Swing-Dancing Competition! Winning pair to be crowned King and Queen of the Senior Ball! (Couples Only!).'   
"Uh," he looked at it blankly, "you want me to dance with _you_? Hahaha!" mouth open wide, nearly crying, he laughed. "After all, who would lead? Hahaha!!" Akane's head steamed, her hair stood on end, and with a swift backhand left a stinging reminder to Ranma upon his right cheek that he should be more tactful.  
"WHY would I want to dance with an idiot-pervert who cross-dresses?!? I was just showing it to you in case you were interested ON YOUR OWN! You think that I want to have anything to do with you after everything that's happened? A wedding fiasco... I'm surprised I even walk to school with you anymore!!" Akane yelled into the young man's face, who was now as heated and indignant as she, although Akane was nearly in tears. 

  
"That's a damn low blow! It's because of my STUPID pop, your dad, and that perverted old man...!" his rebuttal was halted by a soft, high keen that pierced the air of the area, making both his and Akane's hair stand on end. Broken out of their quarrel, the two of them looked around, realizing that in their heated discourse, had walked down a different street and had ended up in an unfamiliar part of town. The houses were less kept than the ones around their school and the Tendo Dojo, and much older. Large trees stood like menacing giants, hiding a dilapidated abandoned shrine.

  
"Great, now you got us lost, idiot," Akane quipped, bopping him on the shoulder. He turned to her, frazzled.

  
"I'm not Ryoga! I can figure out where we are..." he took a moment to look about them again; "yeah, I know where we are now," he mused, "this is the oldest part of Nerima; not too many people live on this side anymore -- at least, if they can help it," they both took in the depressing sight.

  
"Then... let's go--" again, the strange howling noise sounded from one of the houses nearby. "W-what was that?" Akane asked, trying her best not to look scared in front of Ranma -- no matter how much she actually felt so. They paused to listen again; it was coming from the direction of the abandoned shrine.

  
"I'm going to check it out -- maybe it's an injured person?" the young woman said, bounding impulsively off towards the imposing old building, leaving Ranma on the sidewalk. "_I'm not scared... I'm not!" _She neared the archway, where a sleek raven sat, cawing a warning at her; she hesitated there.

  
"Turn baaaack..." 

  
"AGGGGH!!!!" Akane yelped and jumped up, whacking the low voice behind her with her mallet.

  
"M-macho... chick..." Ranma groaned, the mallet leaving a lump on his head, his hands up and twitching in a defeated pose.

  
"D-d-don't DO that, BAKA!!" hiding her mallet, she turned back to the shrine, determined to gain the courage to face the shrine, undaunted. Ranma, rubbing his poor, injured head, stood beside her.

  
"You know, whenever there are abandoned shrines, they have to be haunted," he said sternly. Akane looked up at him, wide-eyed, as he rested his stare upon the old building at the end of a dirt walk. "Why else would they abandon a shrine? Monks have more respect for holy places; only if the place becomes cursed would devout priests leave their shrines. It must be the sound of a restless spirit."

  
Akane noted Ranma's uncharacteristic sobriety, and looked on the shabby shrine with a knot in her stomach: Ghosts??

  
"You... don't think -- is it??" she stuttered to him, turning around.

  
"Of course not," he said flatly, and Akane fell flat as well. "Only fools n' kids believe in ghosts!" 

  
Leaping to her feet, growling inwardly, Akane stared down the shrine, her newest adversary in battle: she must conquer this -- or be laughed at by Ranma for weeks!

  
"_I'm not going to let him make a fool out of me!_" Akane thought as she took another step towards the structure. Ranma, still in his serious, arms-crossed pose, took a moment to notice her advance towards the mysterious old place. Somewhat startled by this, he leapt in front of her.

  
"Wait wait -- you're not actually GOING there now, are you?" he said, with a smile to show that he had been merely joking earlier. Akane, face flushed, forced her eyes off of the shrine before her to face him, trying with all of her heart and mind to remain stoic against her feelings of trepidation and embarrassment.

  
"What, are YOU scared?" she spat sharply, forcing herself to take on a look of ice at the face which she had so many times been unable to stay calm towards. Ranma froze for a second, and frowned.

  
"Why the heck would I be afraid? (_Unless there's a cat..._)" he reasoned unconvincingly with her, "what I meant was that it's late, and I'm hungry; Kasumi said she was making sukiyaki tonight too! Now, Akane, be a good girl for once and go home nicely--" he had closed his eyes for a moment in an attempt to seem more reasonable, and in doing so let Akane walk away from him again without noticing. When he finally did look up, his head turning back and forth to find her, he saw that she had already walked halfway to the shrine. He groaned, and scurried after her, stopping in front of her again. "Akane! Come on! Why can't you just be a typical girl and not some jock with something to prove?"

  
Without saying anything, Akane slapped him across the face, and down into the remnants of one of the shrine's ponds. However a remnant it was, it still had water in it, and when he emerged, he was a she, with her typical large bust and bright red hair. "Pfff..." she began, getting the stagnant water out of her mouth, "what was that for?"

  
"Dummy, if you want a "typical girl" I'm SURE that you can satisfy yourself. Go home if you want -- I don't care; just leave me alone!" she stormed off further, leaving the female Ranma by herself, wringing out her soaked clothes.

  
"Fine, you go in there, and I'll eat your sukiyaki! Bah... women," she muttered, and began walking back to the street.

  
* * * *

  
"_Idiot -- I know that he's really afraid, but I'll prove that I'm braver than him. Using food as an excuse..._" she paused in her thought when her stomach made a loud gurgling noise, and she felt the want for food in her belly. "_But sukiyaki does sound good right now... Damnit, Ranma, if only you weren't such an ass! No, I must take on this challenge!_ Forward!" she shouted aloud, taking a strong forward step into the threshold of the open doorway -- only to hear the whining again, coming from within, which startled her back out of the door.

  
"_Ok... it's just a noise; remember, there's no such thing as ghosts..."_ she chanted to herself, but all the while stories of ghosts, demons and other ilk engulfed her mind, seeing the faces of horrible creatures and imagining her own demise. As she made her way, slowly, into the shrine and through the halls, the noise became louder as it led to the center of the building. The floor creaked constantly, at every step; the walls were dirty, and some were on the verge of collapse, while the once-beautful paper screening that looked out into the back garden were in tattered shreds. Cobwebs, mice and other forms of debris and animal life were evident in the old place, and the garden looked like a young forest of unkempt grass and shrubs.

  
Finally, she found herself inside the innermost hall of the shrine, where an altar with the charred remains of a long-since dead fire lay in a heap beneath a clogged chimney opening. It was dark; she could barely see where she was going, but the noise was at its loudest.

  
"Where is this coming from?" Akane said to herself, looking about the room in almost a panic, her heart racing inside her chest. The floor creaked loudly beneath her; before she could react, the dry wooden planks broke and she fell, but caught the floor with one of her hands. Her body engulfed in a cold sweat, Akane tried to grasp something with her other hand, but to no avail; her other hand slipped off, and she fell down to the floor below her.

  
She landed well, fortunately, on her feet, atop some of the debris. It was completely dark where she had landed, and the only thing she could see was the dull illumination coming from the hole she had fallen through. The noise was there. She heard it behind her, creeping up with an inhuman stealth and movement; she turned, and before her were two glinting eyes.

  
"AGGGH!!!"

  
* * * *

  
"_If that dope wants to go into that rickety old shrine, then let her; I'm not gonna waste my time following around some uncute tomboy just to make sure she doesn't get in trouble_," Ranma mused as he stopped and borrowed a kettle of water from a restaurant that was down the street from the shrine that Akane had went off into. He hoisted his school bag over his shoulder, having returned to male form, and began to trod down the street back into the Nerima he knew. 

  
"_We could've avoided this problem if she had just asked me the right way to the Senior Ball..._" he went on in his head as he passed the old houses and low-end businesses, "_-- which isn't saying that I woulda' gone with her! On the other hand, did she really want to go with me at all...?_" Right at the moment he thought this, he overheard a conversation at a sake bar that he was walking next to: 

  
"Yeah, he came by wondering where this "Tendo Dojo" was, and I told him, 'you're on the wrong side of Nerima for that!' and I pointed North," one man said loudly.

  
"I saw that, the guy with a yellow bandana and an umbrella?" the barkeep said.

  
"Exactly. But after he thanked me, he went exactly the OPPOSITE direction to where I pointed! What kind of moron can't even follow a simple one way direction--?"

  
"RYOGA!?" Ranma yelled, startling the sake drinker and the barkeep together. "_If that retard is heading away from the Dojo, then he might just end up.... at that old shrine.... with Akane!!!_" he continued in his head, nearly falling to his knees in dramatics, the two men at the bar looking at the martial artist as if he were a lunatic. 

  
"_If he finds her..._" in his mind's eye Ranma pictured Akane and Ryoga sharing in a heated battle against some ancient Oni, Akane running to him passionately afterwards declaring, 'Oh Ryoga, what ever would I have done without you!'   
"_And then..._" he pictured the shrine, with the Oni defeated, returned to an idyllic state of old Japan's beauty, with pink cherry blossoms wreathing the perimeter, and little birds singing happily, with Akane and Ryoga sharing a bountiful picnic of sukiyaki. 'Ryoga, it was really you I wanted to take to the Senior Ball! I only showed Ranma that flier to get him to go with someone else!' Akane tells him joyfully.

  
"_But worst of all..._" he saw them laughing and running through a field together, Akane saying, 'Ranma was too afraid to come and see what the noise was, afraid of the ghosts, but I wasn't, and neither were you, Ryoga! We must tell the world that Ranma Saotome is afraid of old spooky shrines!!' They laughed some more, but this time joined by all of Ranma's friends and enemies, all guffawing to the point of tears that Ranma was afraid of ghosts and that Akane was braver than he!

  
"NOOOOO! NEVER!" a determined Ranma declared, immediately sprinting back to the shrine where Akane lay. The men and other people on the street tried to ignore the strange shouting man that came running through their normally quiet streets.

  
* * * *

  
He could see the ramshackle rooftop of the shrine from down the street, still in a dash, when he saw whom he had feared would end up there: Ryoga Hibiki, looking as lost as ever, shuffling down the sidewalk looking around nervously for the Tendo Dojo which was nowhere to be found on that side of town.

  
"_At least he made it to this side of the country..._" Ranma mentioned to himself as he watched the perpetually lost young man keep heading towards Ranma's destination. "If he gets there before me, there's sure to be trouble, but if I run in front of him, there will be just as much, if not more. Hmm..." seeing a consecutive row of rooftops leading to the back garden/jungle of the place, he made a quick leap and began to hop from roof to roof, and finally landing on the shrine property, just as Ryoga stood at the gate of the place.

  
"C'mon, you dope, move along; this isn't the Dojo!" Ranma spat in whisper, watching Ryoga size up the building from a hiding place among the overgrown grass and weeds.

  
"Is this it?" Ryoga asked himself, scratching himself on the head, "it looks like the Tendos haven't been keeping up the place since I last visited. In that case, I shall go to them and offer my assistance in the repairs!" he cried, valiantly, and strode onto the dirt path to the door. Ranma fell flat on his face.

  
"Idiot..."

  
"AGGGH!!" a female cry rang out from inside the shrine, alerting both Ranma and Ryoga.

  
"Akane-!" Ranma cried, an image of her being carried away to a dark world by an evil spirit flashed through his mind, "I knew I shouldn't have left her here alone!" 

  
"A scream -- that sounded like Akane!" Ryoga said, and took to running towards the shrine, "Saotome is probably responsible for--"

  
*THUNK*

  
Face to face, Ranma and Ryoga met; the two of them had run straight into the other, making a sort-of Ranma-Ryoga sandwich. They fell to the ground after a few seconds, parted, and once Ryoga gained his bearings, realized that he had run into the man he most wanted to hurt at that moment.

  
"RANMA! What did you do to Akane!?" he bellowed, bashing Ranma, who was still on the ground, in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

  
"Stupid... pig!" Ranma sputtered, as he tried to get back up, glaring at Ryoga. "What exactly makes you think that I'd do something to her? You're the pervert who sleeps in her bed!" Ranma stuck his tongue out at the fanged man, who then swung his weighted umbrella at Ranma's head, to which he easily dodged, and in the same motion, tripped Ryoga down onto his face.

  
"Listen, bacon breath, I don't have time to play right now; Akane might be in trouble, and I don't need your 'help', so butt out!" Ranma told Ryoga, tauntingly yet serious. Leaving his adversary on the floor, he walked into the shrine, examining it as carefully as he could, keeping all of his highly-honed skills of perception tuned to any signs of danger that might sneak upon him in this place. He almost felt silly fearing that some sort of monster resided in this old shrine -- but, at the same time, he had seen some incredibly strange things in his travels and travails over the past few years, so it wouldn't be a complete surprise if there was something malevolent keeping home there. 

  
He looked behind him; Ryoga had not followed. "_Maybe he's gotten it through his head no one wants him around here. I don't see why he keeps chasing Akane -- he has Akari, and she KNOWS about his pig problem. He shouldn't pass that up,_" Ranma thought, right before he heard someone running atop the roof. "_Nevermind... he's looking still_," Ranma shook his head and kept going.

  
The halls kept on winding, and it kept on getting darker and darker, and for some reason, Ranma kept feeling a strange twinge of... fear.

  
"_What's wrong with me? I have no reason to be afraid... unless there's a cat... but the dark? It's something else, something... something I can't quite put my finger on,_" he said to himself as he neared the innermost hall, from which shone a small glint of light from what was left of the hole in the chimney part above the fire altar. He shocked back suddenly, bracing himself against the creaking wall.

  
"_I... I swore that I just saw the altar blazing..._" he looked about, but nothing was aflame, nothing even bright enough to create an image of fire. The only thing that he saw now were a few broken metal pipes, the ends jagged, rusty and sharp, probably broken by a collapse in the floor where the pipes had been for gas to help fuel the fire. He nervously scanned the room the best he could before he forced himself to go in. The floor creaked, and he felt a slight slant in one direction, as if there were a hole in one side. He stepped along carefully until...

  
"Hello?!" someone's voice yelled from beneath the floor.

  
"Akane!?" Ranma replied, recognizing the voice, "where are you? I heard you scream from outside; what happened?" 

  
Below, Akane was overjoyed that he had found her, but at the same time was disappointed that she had to be saved by him. "The floor broke, but I found what was making the noise," she was interrupted by a little bark.  
"A puppy? THAT's all that was???" Ranma said, disgusted.

  
"It was trapped down here; it must have fallen through the roof," she said, looking at the cute little gray puppy's face and held it close to her.

  
"So... why don't you just get out?" Ranma said, peering down the hole, where he could just make out Akane's form. "Too clumsy to get out of your own mess?"

  
"Jerk -- I twisted my ankle when I fell! Anyway, I have to be able to carry the puppy, so one of my arms is occupied right now," she said gruffly. Ranma could almost see her face turn red.

  
"Fine," he stretched his arm down the hole, holding onto the floor with his other, and found Akane's outstretched hand, and began to pull her up. "Hurgh... have you gained weight?"

  
"JUST PULL ME UP!" she retorted furiously, unable to hit him due to the bundle in her other arm. After a bit of strain from the awkward position, Ranma pulled Akane and the puppy out of the hole. Akane coughed from the dust, and patted down her school dress, caked with dust, and set the puppy on the floor. Seeing that it was free, it gave Akane a good-bye yip, and scuttled off to exit the shrine. Ranma stood silent waiting for her.

  
"So, why did you come back?" she said while examining her twisted ankle, rubbing it a little. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. "I'm sure that your beloved sukiyaki is cold by now, if daddy and uncle Saotome haven't eaten it all," she added provokingly.

  
"I couldn't just let you go 'n hog all the glory... if this is what you call 'glory'. I couldn't have you spreading rumors that I was afraid to go into some old abandoned shrine -- which I might add, I am not," he said bluntly. Akane looked down.

  
"Oh, that's all..?" she said, unguarded for a moment, until she realized that Ranma had perceived what lay beneath her words. "Well then -- you should have just gone home! I didn't need you, and you had to come back just to prove that you were better than me, a girl. I came here on my own will! I could have gotten out of there just as well without you, so don't go feeling special!" she threw her head into the air spitefully. Ranma grew heated.

  
"That's gratitude for you -- I come to help and you tell me to take a hike. Should'a expected that much from a girl like you," he said, turning to leave. Akane stood and glared at him.

  
"What do you mean, 'a girl like me'?"

  
"Nevermind," he said drearily, not turning around.

  
"Not 'nevermind'; what are you insinuating!?" she began to raise her voice.

  
"You asked for it," he mumbled under his breath, turning around angrily, "an over-reacting, thickheaded, jock-chick! Sometimes you try to act more manly than a real man! I know I've told you this before, what, a thousand times if not once, but I still can't stand it! Why can't you just be a normal girl for a while, instead of acting like some macho, uncute, ditz?" he blurted out to her, waving his hands. They stood staring at each other in silence for a few moments, Akane's face blank. Slowly, she turned her head down.

  
"A-Akane?" Ranma said gently, realizing then that he said something that had truly hurt her.

  
*WHACK*

  
He almost flew across the room, she even left a mark of his face, which was amazing since he could usually take ten times that and not bruise.

  
"RANMA!" she screeched, tears flowing down her hurt, angry eyes, "you high and mighty jackass, you don't know what it is to be me!!!" she swung at him again, this time, with him dodging, just barely. In the swing, her blouse caught a nail on the wall and ripped, her sleeve almost gone. "You're always the strongest, the best at EVERYTHING!! You even get better grades than me!!! Sometimes... sometimes I HATE YOU!!!" she cried.

  
"Akane --!" he tried to get a word in, but she turned to him and interrupted again.

  
"You BAAAAKA, you.. you... PERVERT, you HALF-MAN, I HATE YOU!!!" she spat in all of her most hurt feelings, all of the teasings and little comments that he had made to her over the last three years coming to a head. "RANMA... I... I... I WISH YOU WERE DEAD!" she finished, right in his face. She remained there for a second, and the turned away weeping, beginning to run. 

  
"Akane!!" Ranma yelled, half angry and hurt himself, but half genuinely guilty, and went after her. She kept running until she ran into something -- someone. Ranma saw a pair of eyes full of rage and a sneer from a fanged mouth. It pushed Akane to the side gently, then without saying anything, gave a shocking blow to Ranma's stomach. 

  
"Saotome..." the voice of Ryoga trembled in anger, "YOU HEARTLESS ANIMAL!!" he stared down at Ranma, who was doubled over, clutching his abdomen, and prepared to strike again. "First I find you here alone with her, and then you have the audacity to insult her AND rip her clothes! I WILL NOT ALLOW IT!!"

  
Having to recover quickly, Ranma leapt backwards, avoiding Ryoga's impending fist. Ryoga took to chase, and sought out his enemy amidst the shadows of the old hall. Akane, who had reeled back after bumping into Ryoga, watched, nursing her hurt feelings. "_I hope he really hurts that idiot..._" she thought, seeing Ranma dodge yet another blow, and stomp Ryoga's head in the process. "_Fat chance..._" she added, remembering how Ryoga was always getting trounced by Ranma on a fair playing field. 

  
The fight continued, with Ranma tying to get Ryoga off of his case, all the while leaping, ducking and just plain moving fast to avoid Ryoga's steely fists, which angered the fanged man all the more.

  
"Stay still, Saotome, and let me punish you!" Ryoga bellowed, frustrated.

  
"You think I'm as stupid as you look?" Ranma came back, flipping over backwards and ending up behind Ryoga, where with a swift sweep with his leg, brought Ryoga to the floor.

  
"Curse you!!"

  
Akane remained in the corner, near the broken-down altar, growing bored of a routine battle. "You stay here, Ranma; I'm going home," she said aloud, feeling her way through the darkness, trying not to trip on anything lest she inflame her already sore ankle. The floor creaked loudly, just as, Ranma having yet again ducked a blow, Ryoga smashed a supportive pillar to splinters. Ryoga kept on going at the his rival, not noticing the impending danger of the roof that was now noticeably sagging; Ranma did.

  
"Pork brain, let's get out of here! The roof's gonna collapse!" Ranma shouted to Ryoga, leaping around the room.   
"I'll not listen to any of your distractions!!" Ryoga yelled, his eyes clouded by anger. Ranma saw it starting to fall... near Akane!

  
"Akane!" he shouted across the room, "don't go that way!" he pointed to the ceiling, but she only stared at him with the same hurt look on her face; she didn't believe him. "Damn it..." he cursed, and ran from Ryoga.  
"Get back here, coward!!"

  
"I told you..." he said while running on a crash course with Akane, "get out of the way!!!" swiftly, and a bit rough, he collided with Akane, sending her skidding through the doorway.

  
"Ranma--!" she shouted in rage, then she bumped her head against the floor and stayed down for a moment, dazed.

  
"You bastard!!!" Ryoga, all the more angered by the "attack" upon Akane, rushed at Ranma, who was off-guard thanks to his deferment of the girl, and they connected, Ranma being thrown to the floor. Before Ryoga could make another move, or Ranma could leap away, the ceiling gave up and came down on the both of them, crashing loudly, jostling Akane back to full consciousness just in time for her to see Ranma and Ryoga engulfed in debris, making the floor collapse below each of them. 

  
As quickly as it had happened, it ended, the dust creating an eerie silence after the commotion had been so abruptly stopped. The late day sun beamed down gently from the huge hole in the roof, and half of the floor in the hall was collapsed down into the base floor. She scrambled to her feet, coughing as the dust and dirt got in her mouth and nose, barely able to see down through it to see what had become of the two men. When the everything came to settle, she could see a huge pile of rubble, but neither of the boys were visible. 


	2. Chapter 2

Without You

By Medina

*Characters property of Rumko Takahashi. I'm not nearly imaginative enough to have come up with these people myself. ^_~

Chapter 2

"Ryoga!? Ranma!? Are you all right?" she shouted down, and when no reply came, she carefully climbed down into the hole which she had earlier been rescued from and began sifting through wooden planks, metal pipes and other pieces of building that had come down. Upon moving a torn cardboard box, she saw a yellow bandana with a black pattern on it, and pulled up on it. Ryoga, with a bump on his head and various other scratches was completely out of it, his eyes glazed in spirals and his mouth open with his fangs visible. 

  
"Ryoga, are you ok??" she asked intently, shaking him a bit. He blinked his eyes, and suddenly leapt up to his feet, fists clenched, alarming Akane, her hands up in surprise.

  
"Curse you--!" he declared to the sky, and immediately collapsed again, a whirl of disorientation shadowing his head. Lying down now, he opened his eyes again and noticed Akane looking over him. "Akane -- you came to my rescue??" his face grew flushed in anxiety, "Akane... I... I, I... GAH!" he bellowed, not able to get any sort of appreciative or loving word out of his flustered face, and relaxed his head back down, trying to think of how to begin again. "Uh... Akane, why don't I walk you home now? I'm sure your family is wondering where you are and--" he looked back to where Akane had been kneeling next to him, and she was gone, sifting through more of the debris.  
"I'd like to take up your offer, but first," she said as she tossed splintered wood behind her, "I need to find Ranma... so I can give him a piece of my mind!" she added on to make sure she didn't seem as concerned as she actually was. Ryoga nodded his head in defeat, but stayed there, brushing the dust from his torn clothes and checking for any serious cuts.

  
"_Akane, such a noble woman; searching for such slime out of the goodness of her heart,_" he thought as he gazed upon Akane, still moving wood.

  
"Akane..." a male voice murmured softly from beneath the pile, which perked the girl's ears into the direction she needed to go.

  
"Ranma, where are you?" she called loudly, hoping to hear him again so that she could pinpoint the direction, but there came nothing. She began to dig in the direction that she had heard his voice, but then considered to herself who this was she was digging for.

  
"_This is Ranma I'm looking for, after all,_" she went over in her head, pausing from her work, "_he's probably playing at this to make me look foolish for being so concerned,_" she pictured him popping out from under the rubble at the most inopportune time, and then laughing at her, calling her a weak little girl. She frowned. "_That won't happen this time, Ranma Saotome,_" she stood up straight and looked around the half-illuminated basement floor, then shouted, "Okay, Ranma, come out; I know what you're doing, and you're not going to make a fool out of me again," she paused for a minute or so, waiting for some movement. None. "This isn't funny, this isn't cute! Just come out and let's go home," nothing again. 

  
Still determined to win this time, she walked over to Ryoga and put her hand on his shoulder. "Fine, Ranma, I'm going to go home with Ryoga and you can come follow us whenever you like. We'll have such a nice walk, won't we, Ryoga?" she looked at Ryoga, who was now as stiff as a statue, his face beet red; she tugged on his arm, and he fell over, still in the same position as he had been standing. Akane sighed. "We're leaving," she said loudly, and began to drag Ryoga up the rubble pile, out of the hole.

  
"No... A... Akane..." even softer this time they heard his voice come from the pile, where a couple of two by fours moved and a shingle was pushed out, revealing a hand, straining to move, trying to get their attention.

  
"Ranma, just get out, you're stronger than me anyw--" she stopped abruptly, spying something that struck sliced her vision like a knife: Ranma's hand was trembling, and a trickle of dark blood stained the back of it. "Oh no..." she whispered, and dropping Ryoga like a brick, hurried back down to where Ranma was pinned.

  
"Ranma, talk to me! Can you push any of this off of you?" she asked, fear lacing her voice. No answer, but she saw that his hand was still moving, and so began to pick through the best she could, but came to what was blocking her way the most, which was the pillar; a thick column of wood which had on top of it half of the altar base. She tried to move it, but it wouldn't budge; she was too weak! Growing more frantic, she kept trying and pushing to make it move, until something happened, and it began to lift suddenly without her adding any extra force. She looked up: Ryoga had come to his senses and realized that something had gone awry. He used his brute strength, and the pillar was soon out of the way. 

  
Akane gave Ryoga a look of gratitude and went to picking away the last of the wood, metal and insulation. She could see his red jacket and black pants beneath her, and from the way that the debris had been positioned, he shouldn't have been under too much pressure, and seeing a rip in his sleeve showed a shallow gash in his arm. That's where the blood had come from; a feeling of relief washed over her, and even Ryoga, seeing that a crisis had been averted.

  
"You're free, Ranma. Are you all right?" she talked to him as she cleared away more stuff, hoping that now, with the pressure off his chest, that he would respond. Ryoga, still silent, pulled away a box that had been over Ranma's face; his eyes looked up to his rival wildly, piercing him with a feeling that Ranma was trying to tell him something.  
"Akane," Ryoga whispered, his eyes still locked into Ranma's, "Akane, something's not right..."

  
"What are you talking about?" she asked, clearing Ranma's other hand from beneath a mass of tangled pipes. Ranma raised his arm slowly, pushing away at the rubble that covered his chest, consisting of a few blocks of wood and another set of metal pipes.

  
"I'll get those off," Akane offered, "why don't you get up?" she suggested, right as she reached for the pipes, but found that they wouldn't move. She paused, perplexed, and grabbed at them again, a little harder this time.  
"Agh--!" Ranma groaned in a feeling of sharp pain and gasped air back into his throat heavily, his eyes widening more. "Akane..." he spat out, looking at her, who now had a horrible sense of dread taking over. His hand, shaking, grasped the side of his jacket near the pipe, and pulled it out to reveal...

  
"The pipe--!" Ryoga gasped in horror.

  
"No..." Akane mumbled, her eyes wide in fear, looking down by his back: blood. Blood everywhere. His red jacket had masked showing it on top, but the amount beneath him couldn't be denied; it covered everything.

  
The pipe, the broken, sharp, rusted metal pipe had impaled Ranma's chest in the fall of the floor, through the upper-left side, through lung, artery and vein, not completely coming out his back; only the tapered barbs of the broken end. A steady stream of blood had already left his body, and his face was growing pale.

  
Panic-stricken, Akane found herself unable to say a word, let alone think, until Ryoga's voice brought her back.  
"I... I..." he stuttered, the blood and the horror of the incident shocking the normally strong young man to the point of babbling. Akane bent down over Ranma and began to try and assess the situation as best she could.

  
"Ranma... oh my god... oh.. oh... Ryoga! Go out and get help!!" she looked at the directionless boy, who as about to ask her something, but she wouldn't allow it. "Just go! I don't care who you find, what you find, just, just get an ambulance, a doctor, ANYTHING!!!" she shrieked, and Ryoga took off at that in a hurry.

  
Akane looked down at Ranma; she had never seen him look so weak, so helpless, not even when he had lost all of his strength had he seemed so much not like the Ranma she knew. Somehow though, in the depths of herself, she found a deposit of courage.

  
"_I know I need to be strong -- for the both of us_," she thought, taking a deep breath to strengthen herself from crying into hysterics. When she opened her eyes again, he was looking at her. She couldn't quite understand what his eyes were telling her; they did not look afraid, but painful, and with an odd sort of tenderness that Akane rarely saw from him. That look only made her feel more desperate to help him. She sat down next to him, and rubbed her shoulders in the cold of the basement. The sun was going down steadily, and it was getting cold. She felt something touch her hand, and looked down; Ranma was trying to take hold of her hand. She grasped it, and smiled down at him warmly.

  
"Save your strength, Ranma," she told him, trying her best to keep her voice from wavering, "you'll make it through this, like you always do. Anyway, you're too stubborn to give up without a good fight, right?" she looked at him again, his expression had not changed, which somehow made her more uncomfortable. "Ryoga will find some help, don't worry," after she said that, she heard a wheeze from Ranma that was something like a laugh, but the movement of his chest caused him more pain. Akane couldn't find any more encouraging words, at least ones that she could say without breaking down into a barefaced lie, so she stroked his hand gently, warmly, and felt him squeeze back in response.

  
* * * *

  
"This is taking too long," Akane whispered, watching for a sign of anyone coming down to bring aid. "_Why did I have to send Ryoga?_" she asked herself, but she knew why, although she would not admit it to herself. Mere minutes seemed to her as hours as she watched Ranma's face grow paler, felt his grip steadily lose tenacity. By a feat of strength, through all of this, the boy had retained consciousness, despite the pain that emanated from him so much that Akane could almost feel it along with him; a cold, sharp object thrust into her chest, the feeling of her own blood washing her back made her shiver and her heart beat faster in anxiety for he who lay beside her. But the light in his eyes was fading.

  
"Akane..." he whispered as best he could, the pain and congestion in his chest obvious in his words, "leave me."  
She turned him suddenly, having drifted off into thought, startled, for he hadn't said a word since she had found him.

"Shh... don't waste your strength," she told him again, the only words she could think of at the moment.

  
"No," he went on, gasping for enough air to make a sound, "go..."

  
"Why?" she asked, feeling hurt by his command. She could have kicked herself for feeling so, but nonetheless, she wanted to be by his side. His eyes pleaded with her, but she wouldn't budge. "Why?" 

  
"I... don't want..." he began, and coughed, reddened saliva spreading to his lips, "want you to... see me... die... like this."

  
"You're not going to die!" Akane roared almost too hastily, and caught herself, calming, "you're not going to die, Ranma; Ryoga is going to bring help soon, and everything will be fine," she whispered to him, clutching his hand tightly in hers, locking eyes with him as if her gaze could keep his from faltering. She relaxed more, and began to stroke his forehead. 

  
"You'll bounce back, you'll see. You have more competitions to win, more morons to teach a lesson to," she told him, "you need to beat me again at something -- you always do."

  
He took in a breath heavily and turned his face away from hers wishing he could hide, but in no condition to move, he was vulnerable to her every look. A tear trickled down the side of his eye, spattering lightly against the rubble beneath him, and squeezed Akane's hand with all the strength he could muster. Akane felt a weak pressure on her hand when she noticed the tears in his eyes; from them she could feel the bitterness of his futile frustration -- she hated that, for Ranma knew when he was beaten to the point of futility, which Akane couldn't bear to see him in; it hurt her to do so.

  
"No, Ranma, don't do that... don't--" she began morosely, and began to feel his hand loosen from hers. His chest convulsed into weak coughs as blood which had welled up inside his lung tissue was overwhelming him and trickled from the corner of his mouth after the heaving subsided, turning into a slow wheezing. Akane saw his eyes begin to glaze over and his eyelids struggle to stay open.

  
"Ranma, come on!" she said to him, trying to tilt his head to the side to rid his air passages of the blood, but only succeeded in moving around the pipe in his chest, causing the stream of blood leaving his back to grow. "just a couple more minutes, please, hang on!" 

  
Another few coughs shook his frame, and he tried in vain to sputter the fluids from his mouth, causing more thick, almost black blood to pour down his cheek, which was pale to a pasty whiteness. His eyes looked up to Akane's again for one, last lingering look, then slowly fell shut. The rocking of his chest stopped, and Akane no longer felt his hand pressed against hers.

  
"Ranma?" she pressed his hand against her chest, in hopes that it would move, but did not. She took to shaking him, but felt no resistance, saw no sign of movement. She finally put her ear down to his chest and listened; not a sound of breath, not a trace of a heartbeat. Her heart fell to her toes and a sharp realization of what she had not heard chilled her soul to the point that tears could not come -- they were frozen.

  
"Ranma!!" she shouted, into his face, as she frantically began to attempt CPR. She remembered that they had learned it in school during health class; Ranma had "revived" the victim dummy in record time, but she, she had done the equivalent of breaking the victim's ribs and blowing enough air into his mouth at one time to inflate a large rubber raft. Despite her failure, she had to try! 

  
Putting her hands to his chest, careful to avoid the pipe wound, she began to pump his chest, but it only accomplished in expelling more blood from his mouth. She nearly cursed and tilted Ranma's head to the side, emptying the last of the life-fluid from his throat, and then remembered that she had to blow air into him. She stared at those lips, now stained in blood, and remembered that the only time that they had touched hers was when he had no idea that he had done it. "He won't remember this, either," she thought, as she was about to lean down to force his lungs to expand with air. Just as she neared his lips, she heard a commotion from above and turned to see what it was. Men with flashlights, carrying equipment, and Ryoga, scaled down the rubble heap to reach Akane and Ranma.

  
"Akane, I got the paramedics! Is it too late?" Ryoga called out to her.

  
"I don't know!" she shouted back to him as a paramedic gently pulled her to one side, while the rest of them hovered around Ranma, like honeybees around the last dying flower of summer. Akane didn't notice the man examining her for injuries, nor wince at the sting of alcohol and a bandage over a cut on her elbow; the only thing that she could watch was what they were doing to Ranma, attaching bags of plasma, administering CPR, and strapping him to a stretcher. The only thing that she heard the EMT tell her was that she couldn't ride along in the ambulance, as they weren't allowed to bring her. Nodding numbly, she watched them bear him from her, pressing his chest, covering his face with a breathing mask, and followed to see them disappear into a white ambulance and speed off to the local hospital.

  
* * * *

  
_Sometimes... sometimes I HATE YOU!!!   
I HATE YOU!!!  
RANMA... I... I... I WISH YOU WERE DEAD!_

_  
_Her own words echoed in her head while she stood there, watching the flash of lights from the ambulance hurry him away from her. Bitter knots formed in her stomach, causing her throat to close up tightly, holding back tears that welled slowly in her eyes, rippling the orange-fire of the setting skyline.

  
"_I never wanted this... not even... no -- not in my deepest rage could I have wished this upon him! But... how could I have said it... if not for the slightest moment... I... I wished..._" 

  
"Akane," someone was still there, tapping her shoulder from behind, breaking her from her thought. Still half in a stupor, she turned slowly to see behind her Ryoga, looking hauntedly worried, his eyes wide, his face lined with stress and fatigue. She tried to force a smile at him, but nothing happened -- her face refused a falsity.

  
"The hospital isn't far from here... do you want to...?" he stammered, his urgency and hesitation showing through his uneasy stance, telling Akane without words that he couldn't face this alone. Her heart felt a brief lilt: she couldn't go alone either.

  
"Yes, let's hurry."

  
* * * *

  
The sun was nearly set by the time they reached the hospital; running at full speed, it had taken the two martial artists roughly five minutes to reach the place, and found that the ambulance had arrived maybe a minute or two before them. The long shadows of the building hung over them, like a dark cloud, cold. They rushed through the glass emergency room doors, and panting, reached the reception desk. A rotund, short woman in a nurse's uniform spied them over the top of a clipboard that she had been examining and waddled up to the counter. She had already seen their disheveled look, and assumed they were in for treatment.

  
"Please fill out the proper information and a doctor will be right with you, thank you," she said in one breath, shoving two admittance forms before them, and turned back to her previous task. Akane, panting, pushed the papers away while she looked at the nurse with intense desperation.

  
"Pardon me, ma'am, but a friend of ours was just brought in by ambulance and it's very important that we find him," she said in hurried lines between pants. The nurse paused, almost ready to tell them to wait, but saw something in Akane's face that told her that it was impossible; she had to see this person! She let go a heavy breath, softened her face, and gave Akane a cooperative look.

  
"What's his name, describe the condition."

  
"Uh...? Oh, Ranma Saotome; he had a pipe stuck through his chest--" 

  
"Him?" the nurse exclaimed in a momentary loss in composure. Akane and Ryoga both shook their heads emphatically. "He's in room three, it's just down the way," she pointed to the left hall, "double doors."

  
"Thank you," Akane bowed quickly and took off with Ryoga in tow as fast as she could. The nurse lingered on Akane's running form, shaking her head.

  
"Poor girl..."

  
* * * *

  
Dodging doctors, nurses, patients, carts and various other things that stood in the way, the two of them rushed, trying to look at each door they passed. 

  
"Akane, over here!" Ryoga called to her from behind. Akane skidded to a halt and returned to where he had beckoned: double doors, a big number three. She stood there, almost frozen after the rush to find it. Did she want to go in to find out what may or may not have happened, or would she just stand there and wait for the whole situation to dissipate, like a bad dream? She turned to Ryoga, who offered little reassurance, as he had the same look as she. Turning back a round, she shivered, holding herself together, and began to place her arm out to push the doors open, when someone emerged.

  
Akane and Ryoga leapt back, startled, their hearts beating just as fast as the other. The doctor saw the two of them, and it hardly occurred to him that they were looking for that room. He had almost walked halfway down the hall when Akane spoke up.

  
"Excuse me, sir," she said timidly, the doctor pivoting in her direction, his dark, intelligent black eyes focusing on her through wire-rimmed glasses, "who's in this room? Is it Ranma?" 

  
He blinked at her, "Ranma... oh, you mean the boy with the pigtail?"

  
"Yes."

  
"And who are you?" he asked methodically, crossing his arms lightly, keeping his face intent on Akane.

  
"I'm his..." she hesitated to say, but decided it would be for the best, "... his fiancé." The doctor's face, for a split second showed a change, but instinctively kept his stoical "doctor's face" on.

  
"Oh. Then why don't you come over here with me," he said, motioning for her to come with him into a sitting area that they were by. He walked behind her, and the two of them sat down. Akane felt her face grow paler as her heart beat harder so much that she felt that it was going to travel up her throat and out of her mouth. She watched the doctor intently, wanting to ask the question that was on her lips, but they wouldn't move, so she remained there, silent, waiting. The doctor saw it in her eyes, and drawing in a full breath, ran his hand through his hair, adjusted his glasses and returned his full attention to Akane.

  
"The pipe had punctured his lower pulmonary vein and scratched the aorta, both of which are intrigal to oxygenated blood flow," he began, making small gestures with his hands while he spoke, "and it also punctured a good part of his right lung, along with many blood vessels, and one of the major bronchioles. This all caused a lot of bleeding, but due to the fact that the pipe was left in his chest cavity, there was less than there could have been..." he trailed off, thinking about something, which bothered Akane.

  
"And...?" she asked to get him to the point.

  
He took her hand, "Miss..." 

  
"Tendo."

  
"Miss Tendo, he lost a lot of blood, especially into his lungs, which hampered his breathing severely," he paused again, squeezing Akane's hand a little, and looked down at the tiled floor. "We tried to restore a normal sinus rhythm," he looked up back into Akane's eyes, which were wide, showing an anticipation of pain, "but the loss in blood pressure was too great," the doctor felt Akane grip his hand tighter than ever. He blinked heavily before he could finish, then returned to Akane's eyes; "Miss Tendo, we were unable to save your fiancé."

  
* * * *

  
She hadn't heard it; she couldn't have heard it! It was impossible! She watched the doctor's mouth form the words, as if in slow motion, watched him, listened to him explain the damage, the circumstances, the outcome. 'Unable to save your fiancé...' she heard it, she wouldn't believe it. The doctor's strong hands still held hers, his face was still intently focused into her eyes, she saw the look in his face; 'this never gets easier', it said, and carried a genuine feeling of loss for her. He _had_ lost a patient. No. Not him. She had heard it, but her ears didn't believe it.  
But she felt it.

  
The very moment that she had seen the doctor walk out from the room, she felt something missing, something that had been there every day for the past three years was gone, and her heart sank into the hole it left. Her ears didn't need to hear it, her eyes didn't need to see anything written; she had lost a piece of herself that afternoon.  
She didn't notice the hug of a compassionate nurse, and when they asked her gently about any other family that he had, she rattled off the names of Genma and Nodoka Saotome, his parents, and the phone number to the Dojo and to the Saotomes' house. She remained in the same position, holding the doctor's hand, not a tear, not an exclamation, silent as the dead. The dead.

  
"I want to see him," she whispered, barely audible.

  
"Are you sure?" the doctor asked, his tone hinting that she might not want to see him in state at this point, in an emergency room.

  
"Yes."

  
A nurse took her arm, and Akane let go of the doctor, rose and followed obediently. When she was out in the hall, Ryoga was still standing there, and upon seeing Akane's expression, his bottom lip began to tremble. Akane looked up, with a cold, empty emotion drowning her usually vital eyes, eyes which told Ryoga, 'he's gone...' His legs failed him, and he slid down the wall with his shoulder braced against it as his head hung down into his crossed arms, sobs rocking his frame.

  
The emergency operating room was dim, quiet, save a few whirring sounds that had been left on. In the center of the room, like if on an alter in a shrine, he lay, motionless, pale. Akane broke away from the nurse, who slunk back out into the hallway, leaving her alone. She circled the table he lay on, moved some of the electronic devices out of the way, and came to a stop near his head. The pipe had been removed, and a gaping hole that it had to have left was covered by a blue cloth with spots of blood on it. His jacket had been torn open; it was his favorite red jacket, with the long sleeves and white cuffs. His mouth still looked overly red from the blood that had come up from his lungs, but she could tell that there had been an effort made to clean it off. The rest of his face, resting in an odd serenity, something like sleep, something like sorrow, and his skin was almost a light gray in color now.

  
Akane stood completely still over him, her mind and heart half hoping that he would leap up, for him to tell her that it was all one big joke, like everything else that they experienced together, but this was whatever the opposite of a joke was. Reality. She shot an impulsive hand out to touch his face, but stopped, hesitantly, and then resumed, slower. She rested her hand on his forehead, which still felt of warmth, but not of normal kind -- it was growing colder by the second. Brushing her hand upwards, she felt his coarse, soft bangs, noticing that his pigtail was still in perfect order. Finally, she cupped his cheek -- cheeks and mouth and eyes that had always smiled ... and never would again. A speck of moisture fell onto his pallid cheek, and she threw her arms around his broken frame, not caring about the blood, not caring about the death. She held him tighter, dearer than she ever had before.

  
"Ranma..." she wailed softly, nearly collapsing, her body thrown into a convulsive fit of tears over him.

  
* * * *

  
She didn't know how long she stayed there, she didn't care; the tears wouldn't stop, her tired body still shook with the horrible pain and shock of the loss of him. So many things remained unsaid, undone; there had been so many things that she meant to tell him before, whether they were things that he would have laughed at or been serious, Akane's lips had ached to form the words that wanted to come out, but had been held back for a more appropriate time, yet even now she couldn't say them. She couldn't say much, save his name.

  
"Ranma... Ranma..." she felt the name sting her throat at each time she said it, her eyes blurring with tears at each utterance; the name she would not be able to angrily abuse, to get a rise out of. The only feeling that came at the name was sadness, and emptiness. Guilt. Her words came back again... 

  
_Sometimes... sometimes I HATE YOU!!!   
I HATE YOU!!!  
RANMA... I... I... I WISH YOU WERE DEAD!_

_  
_She never wanted this! She never really did... but words, unthinking words can haunt, torment, fill with regret. In a way, she felt responsible by yelling, by fighting with him, leading him into the shrine that she _knew_ was dangerous.... But she wasn't the type of person to listen to a gut feeling -- especially when it was accompanied by a snickering boy. A beautiful, strong, heroic snickering boy. One who she could not stop hurting over. She shook her head at her guilt... grief was overcoming her more.

  
Noticing again that the job of cleaning off his dear face had not been done very thoroughly, Akane, pulling herself away from him the best she could, found a rag next to a water fixture, wet it and began to wipe his face down gently.

  
The water made him look almost alive again; his skin shined lightly. She looked at his parched lips, and remembered an old tradition that she had seen done when her mother had died when she was young, so she took the wet rag and lightly wetted his lips, letting a few droplets of water drip down into his mouth. The tradition, if she remembered correctly, was used to give the deceased a chance to revive, the water being sustenance to come back. She knew it wouldn't work, but it seemed an appropriate action. Staring down again at his face, she stroked his cheek again and ruffled her hand through his hair, and the tears returned. 

  
"You won't remember this either..." she whispered in his unhearing ear when she leaned over, trembling, and kissed his lips sweetly, lightly, and then encircled his dear head again amidst her sobs.

  
"Akane," someone whispered to her from behind when she heard the doors brush open again and people enter the room. She let him go, and stood up straight to see who it was: Genma and Nodoka Saotome.

  
The two of them caught Akane's gaze tenderly, and Nodoka ran forward, her arms outstretched to Akane, which caused Akane to burst into another fit of tears as she buried her face in the lightly scented cloth of Nodoka's customary kimono. The proud mother did not let tears fall in front of her husband, nor Akane, and especially not in front of her late son; she couldn't let his spirit think that she was a weak, unworthy mother, and so she kept it back behind a mask of pride, though the pain emanated from every inch of her being. Genma, who was still at the door, his eyes shut, his face rested in a look of meditation, began to walk forward, slowly. He made it halfway to the table where his son lay, but his legs were the first to betray him, his step faltering, and he collapsed to his knees. His hands covered his face, but it was obvious that the tears had started, and Genma could do nothing now to control it.  
Akane, having regained some sort of grip on her emotions, looked up into Nodoka's wise black eyes; they reflected the sorrow that Akane felt, and something more, something different than she could fathom: A mother, losing her only son, her only child. Relinquishing her hold on the woman, Akane let Nodoka spend a moment next to him, and backed away.

  
Nearly expressionless, the woman looked down on her fallen child, and for a while, stood as motionless as lay the corpse before her. All that moved was her eyes, those keen, intelligent black eyes that had seen him take his first steps, watched him play, surveyed his fine growth into a man, and now... this. Her strong eyes took in the sight, they wrenched in pain at the sight of the cloth covering the mortal wound on his robust chest, and resting on his face, a single salty drop betrayed her seemingly inhuman strength.

  
"Ranma, oh my dearest little Ranma," she said in a voice so strong, but in a barely audible whisper, "how could this happen to you?" Breaking her frozen stance, she began to tenderly stroke his hair and face as the heavy tear escaped her eye and trickled down her porcelain face. "You were supposed to live long, marry, give me grandchildren to love as I did you -- not to lie... cold, leaving your mother and father before they left you."

  
She broke away her gaze from his face, bringing her hands to her mouth, as the pain was becoming too much to contain, but to her side came her husband, still within his own unbearable suffering. He caught one of her wrists, and pulled down her hand so that he could see her face; she looked up into his reddened eyes, and seeing her own grief reflected back, let go.

  
"Ranma...! Did you ever know how proud I was of you??" she screamed through she fell onto her husband's ready chest, and he wrapped his arms around her, two parents of a lost child. "I never thought that you were unworthy!! I loved you as much as a mother ever did a son... oh Ranma... Ranma..." 

  
Akane nearly ran from where she stood and joined in the embrace, helping to support the stricken mother... who was intended to have been her own. 


	3. Chapter 3

Without You

By Medina

*Characters property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am merely a lesser god meddling with her Creation. =)

Chapter 3

  
"Akane, are you ready?" Kasumi asked her in her always gentle voice, although it had been twinged with of sadness, but also extra care when it came to addressing her youngest sister. Akane didn't answer, but she could see Kasumi peeking in through her door in the mirror of her dressing table where she sat. Kasumi sent her a look of understanding, and came into the room, where she stopped behind her sister, putting her hand on the young woman's shoulder.

  
"I know this has been a hard week, so don't worry about anything. Take as much time as you need," she bent over and gave Akane a kiss on her cheek. Akane finally turned around to look at her sister, and with her large eyes filled with the same grief that she had been feeling since it had started, gave her sister a hug. Kasumi returned the gesture warmly, wrapping her arms about her the girl's shoulders, and they stood there, immersed in the sisterly comfort of the other. Akane relinquished her hold, and looked back up at Kasumi again.

  
"Thank you... I'll be all right," Akane told her, to which she nodded, and stepped out of the room. Akane turned back into staring into her mirror, where she had been blankly living in for the past hour or so, just looking at her own reflection, feeling nothing but the same emotion that had pervaded her being since that fateful moment. She felt it so much that she could feel nothing else, a kind of strange numbness that pain produces. 

  
The last three days had been a blur for her since the incident befell her, and being engulfed in her own melancholy, it became almost a comfort to her, in that she could handle it; otherwise, she did her best not to react to, or even think about any other feelings besides the blueness in which she had resided. She remembered not seeing Ryoga when she came back out of the operation room where Ranma had lain, but she made nothing of it, only feeling tired and empty. Upon her return home, Genma broke the news to the family, which brought out tears from her sisters and her father, but she couldn't let another one fall from her face -- it was too much -- she just wanted to sleep.  
She didn't quite remember much of the following day, so she figured that she must have slept a lot and not gone to school; her family must have been spreading the sad news among the neighborhood and the Saotomes probably let the school know about Ranma, because the day after that all of the people came to visit.

  
She didn't remember many of them either, since there were too many for her to handle, and she knew that she hadn't acted very cordial with them, which she felt uncomfortable about now; wasn't she stronger than that to be able to at least put on a mask of pride and stability as she had always done before? It had always worked with Ranma--

  
"I always had a reason to put on a front with him..." she uttered to her reflection, sinking down into her arms, crossed on the dresser top, her eyes drooping a bit, then wincing as she remembered the rest of that day.

  
* * * *

  
"Ra...n... MAAAA!!" a wail came blustering in from the street, past Nabiki, who had opened the door, nearly knocking Kasumi over with her teapot, and not even noticing Akane. It came to rest in front of Genma and Nodoka, bearing incense and gifts, wearing a decadent black kimono, embroidered with black roses.

  
"Miss...?" Nodoka asked hesitantly when the woman took her hand to kiss.

  
"Kuno, Kodachi, your... (sob) late son's, (sob) INTENDED!" she flourished, her eyes watering intensely behind a black fan she held before her face, "I was... too late to be by his side at his final moment -- but in spirit I was! He must have wished me there with his last breath..." With that, she feigned a faint, with all of the Tendo/Saotome household glaring at her in disgust, but close behind her, catching her midfall was a tall man, draped in a black robe like the woman's.

  
"Please excuse my sister," he began, looking down at the floor intensely, "We mean no disrespect."

  
Kodachi looked up at him with one eye, as she was trying to pretend to be unconscious, her look full of spite. He pushed her up, and forced her to stand, to which she stood there, eyes closed, face frowning, insisting that she was fainted away, despite the fact that she was standing. Her brother continued to look around the room, his face sober, holding his incense stick and a small gift in hand. He turned to Ranma's parents, bowing to each, then her kneel down before the altar.

  
The small Buddhist family shrine, in its red lacquer and gold trimmings housed a small image of the Buddha himself, along with a place for offerings, where a few tangerines upon mochi cakes sat and a metal incense burner with quite a few smoldering sticks already in it. Beside the shrine was a recent picture of Ranma, smiling, in his favorite red jacket, looking as strong and lively as he ever had... exactly how the families thought he should be remembered.  
Kuno placed the gift down in a pile below the shrine and put the incense in the holder, then kneeled down to chant a prayer for his soul.

  
"Namanda... namanda..." he stopped suddenly, his eyes still closed, "What, what was that?" he said aloud, "Is that you Ranma? Are you telling me that you want me to take care of Akane in your absence? Well, I am honored!" He opened his eyes, and looked at Akane, who was sitting drolly at the dining table, trying to tune the Kunos out; "Akane! Ranma's spirit spoke to me! He wants us to be together--" as he stretched his arms out to her, about to leap to her side, he ran his face smack into that of another -- his "Aloha" father, the principal of Furinkan High.  
"Pleas' excuse da keiki, folks, dey's a little loopy," he said, bowing to the ever-increasingly disturbed household, and Akane finally just groaned and put her head down. Principal Kuno pushed Tatewaki to the floor, his arms and legs rigid in shock, next to his sister who was still standing with her eyes tightly shut.

  
The principal took his turn before the altar, leaving a gift and incense as well, then peered at the picture of Ranma.  
"Dyin'...." he whispered as he looked at the picture, taking of his sunglasses momentarily to wipe away at the small tears under them. He put the shades back on slowly, and looked down at the picture again. "DAT'S TEN DEMERITS!!!"

  
"AUGHHHH!!!!" Akane screamed, leaping up, and in one swift kick of her foot the Kunos were sent flying out the door, Kodachi with her eyes still closed. Akane stood, seething with tears in her eyes, screaming, "YOU CREEPS!!" She felt a gentle hand touch her back, and turning around, saw Nodoka's understanding eyes.

  
"Thank you."

  
* * * *

  
On her dresser, there stood a picture from the previous summer's excursion to the beach, which caught her eye as she remembered the visit of the disgusting Kuno family. Picking up the framed print, she gazed at each face that had somehow managed to end up there, including Kuno and his harpy-sister. Akane felt a wave of deep-set anger wash over her, and she searched for a black marker from her pen-can, from amidst cartoon painted pencils, shiny pens and other presents. Knocking the can down, she found the sharp-tipped marker, and uncapped it as the rainbow of pens crashed to the floor. She forced the picture from its frame, cracking the wood, breaking the glass, tearing a corner, she slammed it down on the dresser top and vehemently went to blacking out first Kodachi's serpentine puss, and then scratched out Kuno's smug grin.

  
She sat, seething again, realizing how livid a simple picture had just made her feel, remembering why she had kept herself so numb to these things -- she could not control herself. Having regained her previous state of morose contemplation, she picked up the picture again, looking over the people. She saw Ukyo, Shampoo, Mousse, Cologne, Happosai, her family, herself, Ryoga, Uncle Genma and Ranma... How happy they had all been then, despite the constant conflicts that scattered their days with a sort of annoying excitement. She longed for those days.  
And then she remembered: Ukyo. Shampoo. The other fiancés.

  
* * * *

  
"Hello?" a cheerful voice called from the doorway, accompanied by the sound of heavy objects being sloughed to the floor. "Is anyone here? I came by to say hi to y'all, and the door was just left wide open and no one's about. Hello??" 

  
Into the living space of the Tendo house peeked the ample-haired head of Ukyo Kuonji, the resident Okonomiyaki chef, and one of many of Ranma's admirers. After the incident with the Kunos, the Tendos had decided to retire to other areas, seeing that, perhaps, the Saotomes would be better left to attend to business by themselves. Akane had elected to stay behind; not that she had really told them that she would, but she just had, in that she didn't try to get up and leave. She was the first to notice Ukyo, and when she saw the young woman, she felt something that she hadn't expected: her heart wrenched for a moment, and her skin tightened uneasily as she was going to have to face someone with a serious emotional attachment to him again. She hadn't thought of how she would deal with it, so she hadn't even imagined that upon visiting the pain of others she would see her own in their eyes.  
Ukyo saw Akane and smiled brightly, then turned around to pick up the luggage she had dropped in the hall. Walking in, she looked about casually; she didn't seem sad or even upset at all -- was this how Ukyo dealt with it? Akane wondered, which made her more curious to inquire into what was on the girl's mind. Yet despite her curiosity, she waited in her corner of the kitchen, feeling held back by her fear of facing her own reflected emotions.

  
"Smells like incense in here... Hey there, Akane, where is everyone? This place is usually hoppin' with life! Right now, it's as empty as a tomb -- what's up?" the cute chef asked, Akane wincing at each of the unfortunate words Ukyo had unwittingly used. She paced back and forth, awaiting Akane's reply, but when none came, she continued on her own; "It's been a while since I've been around. I'm thinking of opening another location of "Ucchan's" near the beach, since it's not worth shutting down the one here every summer just to hit the crowds there ... are you okay, Akane?" she asked again, pulling herself way from her own little world when it became apparent that she would be the only one talking.

  
"..."

  
"Uh, okay... Anyway," Ukyo continued, brightening again, "as soon as I've got it all up and ready, it'll be just in time for y'all to come and visit the beach during the summer months! Doesn't that sound great, everyone having a special place to hang out by the beach? And it'll be good for all of our "cursed" friends to get a hold of some hot water, although, I think that Ran-chan likes that girl's swimsuit a little too much, wouldn't you say?" she giggled. Akane's stomach twisted in anxiety and her mind swam in another tide of horrible emotion as the gleeful musings of the girl before her brought up the same memories in herself; normally wonderful, treasured memories, but now only reminded her of what would never be again. She couldn't look up into Ukyo's eyes anymore, and shot her gaze to the floor suddenly.

  
"Ah, of course you would!" she said, taking the movement for a gesture of consent, "of course, I'm not sure if you can handle my competition for him, huh? Hee hee, you know that I'm just a big tease! Oh, I almost forgot -- I brought something with me." Ukyo nearly fell into one of her big sacks that she had carried with her, then popped right back out with a box in her hands. "I figured, that since I've been gone so long, that my dearest Ran-chan would appreciate some of my signature okonomiyaki--"

  
"RANMA'S DEAD!!!!"

  
"for lun.... what?" 

  
Akane found herself standing over the kitchen table, her face red, screaming into Ukyo's unsuspecting face. Realizing this, after a brief pause from the shock of her own action, she sat down just as quickly, throwing her eyes back down to the table's surface. Ukyo stood there, the box of her special dish still in her hands, staring down at where Akane had so abruptly cut her off. Like a melting statue, she slowly sat down, placing the box on the table, and reached her hand across to touch Akane's folded grasp.

  
"What -- did you say?" Akane felt her touch, gentle, and caught Ukyo's face again, the brightness changed to a horrified look of hope against her own hearing. A tear escaped Akane.

  
"It's true. Three days ago. It... it was an accident."

  
"B- but how?? Ranma NEVER has 'accidents'!" Ukyo pressed, her hand gripping Akane's tighter.

  
"It _was_ an accident!" Akane repeated, this time with more intensity; she didn't really believe herself.

  
_I wish you were dead!_

  
The words weighed on her chest as heavily as the debris that had pierced Ranma's chest, as if they were one and the same... 

  
Akane lost herself momentarily within her own bitter guilt, but was jostled back to reality when she heard gentle sobbing across from her; how could she only think of herself! Ukyo had known Ranma for many more years than she had, and had endured the indignities of being a 'second-place' fiancee -- the girl had lost just as much, if not more than she herself did in this situation. Akane sat in silence, allowing her own tears to slowly trudge their way down her cheeks while she studied Ukyo's reactions.

  
Her pretty face and green eyes were already red, and she was moving her hands slowly back to the box that she had brought -- a gift too late. Pulling on a string, the top was released, and she fumbled back the lid to reveal an okonomiyaki masterpiece: in the shape of a heart, lined with shrimp and crab, the sauces applied in just the right amounts, and written with the most care, "Ran-chan" stood out in the white sauce. She blankly stared down at it, occasionally shaking with a sob. "Ran-chan..." her mouth formed the words, but no sound came from her throat. She closed her eyes.

  
Akane was touched, and hadn't expected to feel so for one of her 'rivals'. So many new feelings were born at each aspect of this whole incident, she could hardly keep up with them all. Akane pulled a tissue from her pocket and placed it into Ukyo's trembling fingers, to which the girl looked up to see an earnest look of compassion and understanding from Akane, and nearly smiled. Taking up the tissue, she blotted her eyes and looked about the room uneasily. Her eyes lingered across the kitchen into the living room where the family shrine had been opened up to welcome the spirit of the deceased.

  
Impulsively, she stood up, her eyes never leaving the shrine, bringing her creation with her, and began to shuffle over to it as a sleepwalker might move. Arriving there, she scanned the area for an unlit incense stick, finding the last of the sweetly-scented orange blossom incense that the family had always kept with their shrine. Lighting it, she placed it into the metal burner, and closed her eyes again to take in the aroma of the wisps of smoke that now rose from the altar like spirits into the heavens. Gingerly, she opened the box again to look at the gift that she had intended to bestow upon her beloved, which now would have to serve as an offering to his spirit in the netherworld. She kneeled before the shrine, holding the still-warm okonomiyaki up to the picture of Ranma.

  
"I give this as a love-gift to my Ran-chan; may your spirit be restful... and always remember that I will never stop loving you..." her voice gave out on the last few words, and she placed the offering on the altar before she completely broke down, falling prostrate on the wooden dojo floor, her body wracked with great heaves, her love and loss pouring out as her salty tears stained the floor. Akane rose and ran to her rival's side, putting her arm around her back while her own eyes still were full of her own lamentation. Ukyo slowly sat up, her hands covering her face, and sank herself into Akane's waiting shoulder, where they remained for some time, taking a small comfort in the other's presence and shared grief.

  
* * * *

  
"_It's amazing_," Akane mused, "_how something so horrible can remove rifts between people. I've never thought much of Ukyo's feelings towards Ranma, but... but she did love him. And I.... I... still, I can't say it, even to myself_," she glanced over the picture some more, and noticed that she and Ranma, although on two different sides of the picture, somehow looked to the other, and their stances matched perfectly.

  
"_After all... he was so mean to me at times... yet I was the same way to him. My feelings seem so unclear most of the time; I'm never quite sure what I'm feeling when I do something, or say something. Maybe it was just the hurt talking at times, or... th_e gratitude. Maybe... maybe I never loved him at all... maybe I'll just miss him as a friend..." she mulled it over, but as soon as the notion crossed her mind, her heart and stomach seemed to wrench into a great knot, falling somewhere down into her entrails, but attempting to take with them the tons of baggage that came with any true feelings for him. It felt completely and utterly wrong. She tried to think it again, to convince herself that he meant less to him than she had made out...

  
"_NO_," her psyche shouted, the twists and turns inside of her loosening, but with them the pain of her true feelings returned "_Damn it, why can't I just rationalize it all away? Why did it have to be the other way around... that he really meant more than I had ever realized?_" another of many tears dripped onto the picture, this time wetting Shampoo's exotic smile. "_I guess we all try some way to lessen the burden... even to deny it completely._"

  
* * * *

  
Ukyo hadn't stopped crying, but she had stopped shaking and sobbing uncontrollably. Akane had walked her back into the kitchen and offered to make her some tea; the girl consented with a forlorn glance back. Now Akane was apprehensive, because it was time to prepare tea -- tea was a beverage, something that is taken with food... Akane didn't "do" food. Even if she tried, and oh, how she tried. Her cooking fiascos were one of Ranma's favorite jokes...  
She sniffled again, and pushed back the thought. Must make tea for Ukyo! She found the teapot, and the jar of tea.. and hoped.

  
"Here you go, Ukyo."

  
"Th- thanks, Akane..." the girl gave a heartfelt reply, and cradling the mug in her hands, brought the teat to her parched lips, the liquid warming her body. A smile washed over her face for a moment, and Akane brightened -- the tea hadn't killed her! As she watched Ukyo sink down into the chair, sipping the tea in silence, Akane felt suddenly peaceful, as if someone had reached out and given her a hug. She looked about the room in a wonder.

  
"_Ranma...?_"

  
"EVIL GIRL!!!" 

  
The wall crashed in, covering Ukyo and Akane in plaster dust, and causing the teapot to tip off of the table, the tea dribbling out of the top and spout. The noise and sight of a crumbling wall suddenly brought Akane back three days, and she cowered back, her heart racing as she looked about wildly, searching for Ranma. What she found, as the dust settled was Shampoo, beyond irate -- almost crazed.

  
"Sha- Shampoo! What do you--" 

  
"Shut up! Where pervert-girl hide Shampoo husband?" the Amazon looked razor-sharp daggers down at Akane, now broken from her stupor, her ornate weapon millimeters from the girl's nose. Both Akane and Ukyo were confused; she thought that they were hiding Ranma?

  
"Speak! Where hide Ranma?! Tell!" now Shampoo's face had switched positions with her weapon. Akane felt something odd in the gaze...

  
"Don't you know? Ranma's..." Ukyo interjected, feeling the tension between the other women and attempting to at least begin to bridge a way past it. Shampoo shot her glare over to Ukyo, and pointed her weapon at her.  
"You in on too? Pervert-girl and boy-girl hiding Ranma for selves?"

  
"But--" Akane tried now, but only caused Shampoo's attention to return to her.

  
"People tell grandmother that Ranma dead! That Akane last person seen with him! I know it all lie! Great-big lie!" she blared into Akane's face, then backing off, her weapons pointing at the other fiancees, spoke again. "If tell Shampoo where you hid Ranma, I not fight. TELL!"

  
Ukyo and Akane exchanged pitiful glances, both realizing the same thing: Shampoo was falling into a madness of denial. The look that had been evident in the girl's eyes when Akane had see them up close showed of an unbearable grief beneath the rage, grief that Shampoo would rather deny to the point of lunacy than deal with. She believed her own conspiracy theory.

  
"Shampoo... can't you see? The shrine, his parents, the obituary in the newspaper..." Ukyo pressed gently, tears welling up in her own eyes in the telling, "The two of us? Shampoo, this is all horribly real... how I wish we were only playing a trick on you, how I do--!" Shampoo glared down, unmoved.

  
"You lie bad. All put-on."

  
Akane could take no more -- she had lived through the whole incident, had held his hand until his last breath -- she knew too-well of Ranma's fate, and as much as she wished it hadn't happened, she couldn't stand someone getting away with denying the truth of the pain that would haunt her for the rest of her days.

  
"You goddamned little whore," she growled, striking both Ukyo and Shampoo's attention, "you think that you're more special than anyone else, that you can just go and not believe it, not recognize the pain that the rest of us are feeling -- the pain that he went through as he bled to death beside me!!" she paused, beginning to see a shimmer of a tear in Shampoo's angered watch. "Yes, Shampoo, he bled to death, it happened. A falling wall, a ceiling, a metal pipe pierced his chest, his blood still stains the floor of the old shrine. I saw the rusty metal inside of him, the blood... oh, the blood... how he struggled to stay awake, he told me, coughing through his own blood, to leave him, to not watch him die. But I did. I watched him grow pale, his strength leave him, and I SAW HIM DIE!! I felt his cold forehead at the hospital, and I'm helping to arrange his funeral! HOW DARE YOU deny what I have to live with, that Ranma DIE while I still live. You have no right, NO GODDAMNED RIGHT!!!!"

  
The room was unnervingly silent after that. Ukyo sat, dumbfounded again, frozen with the cooling cup of tea still in her hand. Akane was now the one staring down Shampoo, tears freely leaving her livid, hurt eyes. Shampoo's visage had melted, her mouth hung open, her weapons were down at her sides. A tear welled up in her left eye.

  
"NO!!! LIES!!!" she screamed again, bringing her hands up to clutch her head, her nimble body writhing at the conflict within herself. Ukyo dropped her cup, watching the breakdown of a fellow fiancee, but Akane remained firm in her gaze. Shampoo looked up, her eyes showing no sign of coherence, just a red haze that covered up truth.

  
"I KILL YOU!!!" the Amazon screeched, clenching her fists in the air, and beginning a rush at Akane. Pushing her back to the opposite wall, she pinned her shoulder with her left arm, and held up her right hand in a blade, ready to strike at Akane's throat.

  
"Do it."

  
Shampoo blinked.

  
"Do it," Akane whispered, her eyes closed, held her head up high and bared her neck to her attacker.   
For a second, Shampoo's face showed the grief that she felt inside, the second that it took to drop her offensive. She reeled back, unsure in her mania why she was suddenly taken with fear of the weaker girl.

  
"Fine. If you not tell Shampoo, Shampoo find him on her own!!" with that, she was gone, swift as the wind out the same hole in the kitchen wall that she had entered through.

  
"RANMAAA!! WHERE YOU???"

  
When Shampoo's pitiful cry could no longer be heard, Ukyo turned back to Akane, who still stood against the wall, but now with tears streaming from her closed eyes, her chin trembling. Ukyo hesitantly walked to Akane -- her 'outburst' had scared not only Shampoo, but the young okonomiyaki chef as well. She touched Akane's hand with a finger, and the girl spasmed away, her eyes opening.

  
"A-Akane... was that all... the truth?"

  
She nodded.

  
"Oh my god..." Ukyo began to cry again, but this time, wrapped herself around Akane's shoulders. She was shaking horribly -- she couldn't cope with that kind of strain. Feeling lightheaded, the room spun, her legs buckled beneath her, and the world faded into a most welcome black. Yet, in her unconscious state, in her ears the desperate cry still rang...

  
"RANMA? WHERE YOU?"

  
* * * *

  
"Poor Shampoo... somehow... I envy her madness," she looked down at the picture again, sniffling back what was left of the few tears she had let out in her reminiscence. She propped it up against her mirror, although it looked a shambles. "I guess that's how it's going to be... Ranma, why'd we have to part that way? So angry -- like so many other days, but you must have known that I never really meant it," she sighed, but also remembered the things that he had said to her which caused their last fight.

  
"You're such a jerk! Why couldn't you have understood me better? I was just trying to be worthy in your eyes, do something right for a change! You just HAD to get angry with me..."

  
She put her head down again, staring at the wall of her room.

  
"Ranma, you jerk, why'd you have to die...?"

  
* * * *

  
Her black dress felt stiff; the cotton material had been starched the last time she had it washed... when had that been? She didn't remember; the dress had been used for formal occasions, and was actually a rather pretty dress, but now, it's gloomy color represented more than a mere formality -- the day was dark, for her heart was clouded over with sadness for he whom she had lost. 

  
Forever. 

  
She hated the sound of that word, or at least what it meant, for she couldn't grasp completely the impact of it. Maybe that's what scared her more. How could there be a forever without someone once they had come into one's life? He would always be in her memory, he, in his good and bad, female and male, she would never forget... or would she? Was she destined to forget him, to move on? Being rid of the pain sounded wonderful, but she didn't want it that way. 

  
To forget. 

  
Forget, forever. 

  
Maybe that's where they fit, what she didn't like. Without her memories, she would truly lose him... forever. She shuddered, and pulled closer to her father, who put a comforting arm over her shoulders and squeezed her shoulder. They were on the short walk between the Tendo Dojo and the closest temple, where the cremation ceremony was to begin soon.

  
Akane's mind was racing with such philosophical thoughts the entire walk, all trying to make sense of what she was feeling. Yet, each time she seemed to come to a conclusion, it wasn't good enough and her mind continued on its endless way. She wished it would just stop. Maybe she'd pass out again, but then she'd probably dream... dream of him, or relive his death, or find another horrible nightmare pertaining to him. There seemed to be no escape. She stared down at her shoes; their shiny blackness was hypnotizing in the incandescent light of the streetlamps, creating flashes and shapes in the darkness. She watched as specks of water formed shining beads on the shoes, drops of rain that had been coming and going that day.

  
"_He'll need his umbrella..._"

  
She choked at the the thought that had naturally popped up in her mind at the thought of rain. Tears began to creep down her face again. Despite the fact that she knew that he was gone, something deep inside her, irrational, thought that he was still there. It was the place where routines dwelled, where the normal, comfortable ideas that were everyday for her sprung from. It had only been a matter of a few days; how could that part of her simply shrug off what had been there for two years now?

  
Rain.

  
In the shadows of the night, dancing amidst the puddles and drips that fell from the eaves of the houses, Akane could see the figure of Ranko -- Ranma's female embodiment. A smiling wisp with red hair and a surprise to all men who thought that such a small girl should be just as demure. She may have been a small girl, but she held inside her the spirit of a great man. She stared as the dancing figure began to fade from her mind's eye, and with a giggle, waved good-bye to Akane, and as she disappeared, she turned back into Ranma, eyes closed.   
Snapped out of her fancy, Akane realized that it was Ranma who she was looking at -- they had entered the temple and were already inside the cremation hall, where his body lay in state. She stopped abruptly as soon as she set her eyes on him.

  
Strangely enough, he looked just as he did when she last saw him in the hospital -- hair perfect, face set into a serene mockery of sleep, skin pale and she knew that there was no more warmth in that face, she didn't need to touch him to know. He was dressed in his nicest set of clothes, the outfit that he had worn on the few dates that he had attempted, sans hat. His hands were rested over his chest in a natural position that normally was used to add to the illusion of sleep, but Akane knew that if Ranma were merely sleeping, he would be sprawled out like a monkey. She almost smiled at the memory, yet almost immediately the amusing memory turned to lead and sank in her soul.

  
There were many people there, some of whom she didn't recognize; must have been friends of the Saotome's. She saw schoolmates and teachers from Furinkan, the neighbors, the old lady who always threw water on Ranma on their way to school. The Kunos had the gall to arrive as well, although Kodachi already looked bored and her eyes wandered about the room. She spotted Happosai looking honestly distraught; had the old man truly thought that much of Ranma after everything that he put the boy through? Cologne and Mousse stood closer to her, Cologne letting a tear betray her hardened face and Mousse trying to be as stoic and uncaring as he could, but Akane was sure that he was struggling with memories of Ranma trying to help him get Shampoo. Ukyo stood on one side of Akane, and she could hear her sniffling back tears and took momentary note of her surprisingly pretty black kimono.  
She felt someone bump into her and turned to see Ryoga looking more haggard and haunted than ever before. Their eyes met and found the same emotions mirrored back: pain, sorrow, grief and... guilt.

  
"I tried to turn myself into the police..." Ryoga whispered to Akane as she turned away from him. She stiffened. "I told them that it was because we had been fighting, that I knocked the floor in and that's what caused the collapse. But they told me that it was an accident, that what caused Ranma's death couldn't have been my fault. They told me that it was normal to feel guilt when these things happen to friends... Akane, they said Ranma was my friend..."  
Akane turned around to look at Ryoga again. He was trembling and weeping, his yellow eyes wide and piercing with the termoil that was raging inside of him.

  
"He was... the closest thing to a friend I had. I killed my friend, Akane, how could I?"

  
"It was an accident, Ryoga..."

  
"Do you believe your own words? I told myself that and I knew that I was fooling myself. I hear you like I heard myself."

  
"I... I..."

  
"It's okay to hate me, Akane. I hated a man who never had any malice towards me, who I should have embraced as a friend, and I killed him. I always told him to die, Akane, I always said I wanted to kill him, and look, look, I did it... I did it."

  
"No, Ryoga..."

  
"You cannot save me from this, Akane. Somehow, I must find a way to have justice for him. The police would not do it, so I'm going to search, if there is any way to cleanse my soiled hands of his blood..." 

  
With that, Ryoga turned around and walked back out into the night, umbrella in hand. Akane wanted to grab him, and tell him...

  
"_It's not your fault... it's mine. I had to be so stubborn and so hateful towards him... if only I had been more sensitive, if I hadn't taunted him... if I hadn't told him that I hated him... that I wanted him dead.. Ryoga... if you are at fault for trying_ to protect me, than how much more am I for leading him in there, for never telling him... for never..."

  
"Akane," her father whispered to her; he hadn't even been aware of Ryoga's sudden arrival and departure, "It's time to pay our last respects... I think it is right that you go first."

  
She nodded to him and slowly approached the altar where he was lain. Her eyes took in all that she could, but she told herself that this was not how she wanted to remember him... however, it would be the last time that she would ever see this body face to face. She wished she could look into those deep blue eyes again, just one more time, and try to tell him what was in her heart.

  
"Ranma, I just never saw it all ending like this... and so soon. Even with all of the adventures, I was sure that at least I would go before anything got you," she whispered to him while stroking his hair again, "who would have ever thought... that it would happen so easily? So I'm going to say goodbye now, and don't call me a tomboy, but I don't want to cry in front of you... I will never forget you Ranma Saotome, never..." she touched his cheek and winced at the coldness, then forced herself to return to the crowd and let others leave him some final words.

The time had come. Everyone had said their goodbyes, and it was time for the body to be cremated. Many of the guests opted to leave, and the Saotomes held no ill will to anyone who didn't want to be present for the actual cremation. Only Ranma's school buddies, Hiroshi and Daisuke, and Cologne, Mousse, Ukyo and Happosai were the only non-Saotome/Tendos to remain for the cremation. The priests lit the furnace and bore the body slowly and carefully inside. 

  
Before they could shut the door on the furnace, a wall crumbed down and revealed a horrible looking Shampoo, her hair matted and dirty, her face cut with marks that looked as if they had been inflicted by her own fingernails, her clothes torn and half falling off. Her eyes showed no sign of coherence; they looked about the place as would a crazed animal.

  
"Shampoo, what are you--" Cologne scolded her great-granddaughter only to be cut off.

  
"Where Ranma? Where Ranma?" she hissed, her voice raspy and mechanical.

  
"You're too late. The body's already gone into the cremator," the old Amazon pointed to the furnace. "Now Shampoo, you come back to the Nekohanten with us right now. This is not how an Amazon warrior should be dealing with this!"

  
"Ranma... there?" Shampoo said, her face lighting up with a dazed smile. She looked to the furnace and could see his form amidst the flames. "Ranma! Ranma, airen, I come, I come with you!" 

  
"Shampoo, no!" Mousse shouted, but no one was fast enough to stop the girl at full sprint. She slipped around the shutting door on the furnace and dove into the fire.

  
"Ranma, we together now..."

*****TBC... 


End file.
